It wasn’t that long ago that video games were the devil. Just like heavy metal or comic books before them, there was a period of time when a kid in school displayed anti-social or violent behaviour, video games were immediately named as the cause. This angry boy lashed out at a teacher but wrap it…

Whenever I watch promotional material for a film or television series, there’s the inevitable interviews with the cast members who praise the director and their vision. They say the cast is wonderful and the finished product is going to be just great. Mark my words, they say, this thing I’ve been working on has been…

In 1992, an episode of the television show Seinfeld featured Jerry and George scoring a free ride in a limousine only to discover it belonged to someone who was planning to give a public speech campaigning against ‘the Jews’ and other ‘inferior’ races later that night. During the episode, George hints that he found one of…

Based in Amsterdam, development studio Guerrilla Games spent six years to create an extraordinary living world featuring a smart, convincing protagonist, fascinating enemies and probably the most compelling story ever realised in an open-world game. Every inch of Horizon Zero Dawn consists of staggering work. The character relationships, the behaviour of the animals, the weather…

On a whim, and thanks to a friend’s recommendation, I bought Avalanche Studios’ 2015 game Mad Max when it was on sale on for eighteen dollars. Here’s what I found. All screenshots taken on a Playstation 4. Out of nowhere, breaking the wind-swept, sand-covered landscape, appears a plane fuselage. Half of it is buried in…

Three months in, the dust is only now starting to settle. Field manuals have all been collected. Every corner of Monte Grappa and Argonne Forest scouted and manipulated. Operations Mode has been fought through thousands of times with battles lasting upwards of an hour – exhausting players not only when they win but even more…

“When we’re finally done with it and have no more updates and put it on the shelf, we want it to be kind of like a masterpiece.” Trent Kusters is the co-founder and co-director of League Of Geeks, the Melbourne-based development team responsible for Armello. That’s the game he’s talking about. A mesmerising digital board…

I walk up to the ticket booth and ask for the best seat in the house. The guy in the window names a price and my blood runs cold. Maybe sixth or seventh best, I say. I pay around USD$250 for my ticket and head inside. The music is deafening, the light blinding. My senses…

I was one of the very few weirdos who loved the original Watch Dogs. Sure it had some problems but one area where it succeeded was its version of Chicago was just great place to walk around. Watch Dogs 2 increases this feeling a thousand-fold. The amount of detail in San Francisco and its surrounding…

“Australia is a lucky country run mainly by second rate people who share its luck. It lives on other people’s ideas, and, although its ordinary people are adaptable, most of its leaders (in all fields) so lack curiosity about the events that surround them that they are often taken by surprise.” – Donald Horne, from…

The horror genre has seen a surprising amount of innovation in the last few years and quite frankly, it’s never been this good. Over the past twelve months, horror games have truly come of age and emerged as a category that can hold its terrifying head amongst science-fiction and fantasy as staples of the video…

It’s four o’clock in the morning in the South Australian Parliament and incredibly, the House of Assembly is still in session. Forty-seven MP’s sit in debate over the Death With Dignity bill – an attempt to pass legally assisted voluntary euthanasia into South Australian law. Many in attendance are irritable and tired, having been staring…